
Robert E. Lee: A Life Allen C. Guelzo (Knopf, 608 pages, $35) “Who’s that man on the horse?” I asked my father at a young age. “That’s Lee — he led the South in the Civil War.” He gave me…
Churchill & Son Josh Ireland (Dutton, 464 pages, $34) Despite an inauspicious beginning, Churchill & Son is a thoughtful study of a father-son relationship during the storms that rocked the 20th century. Randolph Churchill has now prompted six books —…
Since 2009, every change of presidents has been accompanied by a great furor and scurry among the punditry over whose busts are in the Oval Office. The greatest controversy involves Sir Winston Churchill — of which more anon. Let’s first…
“Why did so few heed Churchill’s warnings about Hitler in the 1930s?” A routine question, it snapped me back instantly to the best answer I ever heard. It was by Sir Alistair Cooke, the great journalist and broadcaster, at a…
Yankee Stadium, 1958 When Washington was in town, the drill was always the same: Play hooky; 15¢ for a bus to the Staten Island Ferry; a nickel ferry ride and 15¢ more for the BMT to Woodlawn and Jerome avenues….
November 22, 2018 — A photographer friend sends along praise of Senator Barry Goldwater. Gone now twenty years, he was a noted portrayer of his beloved Southwest: “I am reading an issue of Arizona Highways devoted to his work. The only…
P rince William landed in Israel Monday for the first royal visit to the country. Although the Prince indicated some sympathy for Palestine, speaking of the Palestinian Authority as a “country” in a conversation with Mahmoud Abbas, his visit in many respects marks…
On the first day of April 2018, a spoof flashed around social media. In honor of Easter, all thirty Major League Baseball teams would be wearing jerseys in Easter egg pastel colors. April Fool! The day dawned, and all thirty…
It’s all over the Internet, so it must be true. Not only did Winston Churchill oppose women’s rights, gas tribesmen, starve Indians, firebomb Dresden, nurse anti-Semitism and wish to nuke Moscow. He even cheated on his wife in a four-year…
D arkest Hour, Joe Wright’s recent film, vividly describes the closing days of May 1940, when Adolf Hitler’s blitzkrieg swept over western Europe. In Britain, despite overwhelming odds, Winston Churchill convinced his country to fight on. It is an excellent film…